in
disguise. I don't know where they went. Wait - one of them is
nearby. You should ask him.
He doesn't know? I see.
Please close the device. I can't take the
pain anymore. If you revive me, I will take you to the last place
we saw them go. It was close to somewhere we are no longer, but
once were.
Thank you.
---
"Are you going to revive it?" I asked,
fixated on what it had mentioned about consuming its entire home
universe.
"I think I have to," she said after a
moment.
"It said one of the beings you're looking for
is nearby?"
"Don't you worry about that."
"Alright." I let it pass, despite my
curiosity. "What do you think the Crushing Fist is? That doesn't
sound promising at all."
"No idea, but I'm sure we'll find out. It
sounds like something's coming for us."
Over the next several hours, I worked with
her to set up a mobile radio that she could use to connect to the
structure and talk to me from almost anywhere - as long as her mode
of travel to other realities remained active. A few trips to a
computer store and a hardware store produced a reasonably rigged
headset that would let me see what was going on, too, for the most
part. She turned out to be surprisingly technically capable… I
wondered if she'd had training before.
In fact, there were quite a few mysterious
things about her. She took control of the situation and made
decisions with the calm air of someone who often faced choices with
limited information, someone who understood the risks, and the
impossibility of making perfect plays.
I wondered, too, how she was getting between
universes. Did she have someone helping her? On this topic, she
would say nothing at all.
It was many hours before she declared that
she was ready to travel.
A few minutes later, she turned on her
headset - and I found myself looking at a vast but close-cropped
verdant landscape filled with low ferns and patches of moss. The
sky above was a simple blue, like the kind I remembered vividly
from my time before this dismal office prison.
Before her, a bright ball of flame danced a
path forward. Somehow, despite not having a face, I could tell it
was happy to be alive again. A few moments after guiding her to
that plane, it puffed up - and vanished in a sliver of light.
She must have revived it and had it lead her
to this place before turning on her camera - what didn't she want
me to see?
"Where are we?" she asked.
I ran a few tests on our connection, and
compared it to the matrix I'd built. I measured out an appropriate
spot and added a new circle to our file. "You're pretty far out
past the walls. How'd you get out there?"
"I don't know, since we can't communicate,
but the flame did say it was aware of many cracks in the bubble's
shell," she said quietly, her tone concerned. "I've got myself
pretty tightly wrapped up here in a makeshift environment suit. I
have it on good authority that, after the world where the people
I'm looking for met the flames, they ran into trouble with some
sort of fungus that ate them from the inside out."
"It certainly looks like it has fungus," I
noted, studying what I could see of the thick, low jungle flora.
"What now?"
"I don't know. I'm hoping to find some clue
where they went." She looked around. "Or maybe… if he's been here
before, it should be nearby…"
"Who?"
"Nobody." She moved along a small natural
path between the thick bush-like fronds. Following a small light
green creek that was comfortably clear of any growing things, she
worked her way along mossy rocks, breathing loudly inside whatever
facemask she'd rigged up.
I think I saw them before her. "What's that? "
She came up short, peering into a clearing
ahead.
Several dozen people stood all around the
clearing, facing random directions. They wore plain brown
nondescript clothes with no identifying symbols.
None moved.
They simply stood there, a scattered crowd,
each staring directly ahead.
I couldn't make any sense of it. "What are
they doing?" I zoomed in to
disguise. I don't know where they went. Wait - one of them is
nearby. You should ask him.
He doesn't know? I see.
Please close the device. I can't take the
pain anymore. If you revive me, I will take you to the last place
we saw them go. It was close to somewhere we are no longer, but
once were.
Thank you.
---
"Are you going to revive it?" I asked,
fixated on what it had mentioned about consuming its entire home
universe.
"I think I have to," she said after a
moment.
"It said one of the beings you're looking for
is nearby?"
"Don't you worry about that."
"Alright." I let it pass, despite my
curiosity. "What do you think the Crushing Fist is? That doesn't
sound promising at all."
"No idea, but I'm sure we'll find out. It
sounds like something's coming for us."
Over the next several hours, I worked with
her to set up a mobile radio that she could use to connect to the
structure and talk to me from almost anywhere - as long as her mode
of travel to other realities remained active. A few trips to a
computer store and a hardware store produced a reasonably rigged
headset that would let me see what was going on, too, for the most
part. She turned out to be surprisingly technically capable… I
wondered if she'd had training before.
In fact, there were quite a few mysterious
things about her. She took control of the situation and made
decisions with the calm air of someone who often faced choices with
limited information, someone who understood the risks, and the
impossibility of making perfect plays.
I wondered, too, how she was getting between
universes. Did she have someone helping her? On this topic, she
would say nothing at all.
It was many hours before she declared that
she was ready to travel.
A few minutes later, she turned on her
headset - and I found myself looking at a vast but close-cropped
verdant landscape filled with low ferns and patches of moss. The
sky above was a simple blue, like the kind I remembered vividly
from my time before this dismal office prison.
Before her, a bright ball of flame danced a
path forward. Somehow, despite not having a face, I could tell it
was happy to be alive again. A few moments after guiding her to
that plane, it puffed up - and vanished in a sliver of light.
She must have revived it and had it lead her
to this place before turning on her camera - what didn't she want
me to see?
"Where are we?" she asked.
I ran a few tests on our connection, and
compared it to the matrix I'd built. I measured out an appropriate
spot and added a new circle to our file. "You're pretty far out
past the walls. How'd you get out there?"
"I don't know, since we can't communicate,
but the flame did say it was aware of many cracks in the bubble's
shell," she said quietly, her tone concerned. "I've got myself
pretty tightly wrapped up here in a makeshift environment suit. I
have it on good authority that, after the world where the people
I'm looking for met the flames, they ran into trouble with some
sort of fungus that ate them from the inside out."
"It certainly looks like it has fungus," I
noted, studying what I could see of the thick, low jungle flora.
"What now?"
"I don't know. I'm hoping to find some clue
where they went." She looked around. "Or maybe… if he's been here
before, it should be nearby…"
"Who?"
"Nobody." She moved along a small natural
path between the thick bush-like fronds. Following a small light
green creek that was comfortably clear of any growing things, she
worked her way along mossy rocks, breathing loudly inside whatever
facemask she'd rigged up.
I think I saw them before her. "What's that? "
She came up short, peering into a clearing
ahead.
Several dozen people stood all around the
clearing, facing random directions. They wore plain brown
nondescript clothes with no identifying symbols.
None moved.
They simply stood there, a scattered crowd,
each staring directly ahead.
I couldn't make any sense of it. "What are
they doing?" I zoomed in to
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